Big Idea:
Students celebrate the 1st month of a new year by creating their very own calendar.

To begin this lesson, I gather students in front of the white board. Each day we have a time devoted to the calendar, and songs that go along with this time. I play a Months of the Year song by KidsTV123 found on YouTube that has the same beat as our daily song.

This math lesson was presented on one of the first couple days back from holiday break. Often times, the first couple of days back from a break are hard to get my students back into a routine. I planned this lesson for a couple of reasons:

1. It is fairly simple. Planning a complicated lesson the first day back from break would not have been beneficial.

2. This lesson is touching on a recent experience for my students; the beginning of a new month and new year, which helps connect them to the lesson.

While students are still gathered around the white board after our song, I display the January Calendar. We talk about how January is a new month that also begins a new year. Most of my students understand this concept, as we do discuss these ideas during calendar routine.

The calendar I display has several numerals on it, but most are missing. The numeral 1 is placed on the calendar, so I ask my children to count on from one with me. I stop them at 31, informing the class this is the last day of January. Children are instructed to fill in the missing digits, circle today's date, and color the pictures.

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Students go to their tables to work independently. I know this task will be a struggle for some of my students with poor number sense, so I pull them into a small guided group to complete the task. Working with small groups requires some management, which I address in my reflection.

I like this assignment because it helps with number sense, but also number formation. Many of my students are still struggling to form their numbers correctly, it is not uncommon to find backwards numbers. This task is strengthening fine motor skills, while using a real world tool (the calendar).

I have included a video of one of my students that made me so happy! Not only did he follow all of the directions given, but included X's for the months of December and February. This was some deeper level thinking that I was excited to see.